The Replacement of Yuki Nagato
by GuavaJam
Summary: Last chapter is up. Thank you for reading. Continuation of 'The Reflection of Haruhi Suzumiya'. Next story 'The Arrival of Mikuru Asahina' - starts 2 weeks from now!
1. Chapter 1

When did this story begin? When I thought about it long and hard, I guessed it started _in the future_ from the main portion of the story. Yes, that might sound pretty crazy, but since knowing Haruhi Suzumiya a year ago, crazy was the norm for me.

Not long ago I was dealing with one of the biggest conflicts in my life. That event ended with me time-jumped into the future and landed on top of Haruhi in her own bed - in the middle of the night. Seriously, someone upstairs had a very cruel sense of humor.

Much of what happened next that night had already been told. The other SOS brigade members showed up with a present that I supposedly picked out, and bailed me out from the extremely awkward situation. We congratulated Haruhi for the one year anniversary of forming the SOS brigade, and before long, Ms Asahina sent me back to the past.

Right before I returned to my time plane, as Ms Asahina was standing behind me making preparatation, I looked up briefly and noticed Nagato standing from a distance, looking at me. She slowly lifted her right hand, and appeared to be waving at me. Her face, expressionless as usual, carried a hint of sadness. Was it the lighting? It was time for a goodbye, so perhaps I was reading into it too much? Everything went dark soon afterwards, I was spinning like mad and landed on my bed back to my time.

 _Monday_.

The day started off just like any normal school day.

I said down in my seat in the classroom, took half a breath before Haruhi started her usual greeting. 'Kyon, remember the supernatural convention I mentioned a few days ago? It starts today! Get everyone ready, we are going. This is a mandatory club activity!'

I turned around and dutifully informed her that as much as I would love to go, I would have to miss at least a day or 2 because my dear sister told me last minute about her science project due in 3 days, and she expected me to help. Deep down, even though I had no interest in helping my sister with her project, I had absolutely no need to listen to some amateurish nerds lecturing me about the supernaturals. I LIVED it. Haruhi was not amused by this but she did not protest too much. She told me to inform the others to meet at the literary club room during lunch. Why didn't she do it herself, you asked. Because I needed something to do, and she's done her part - barking orders at me.

At lunch break, I arrived at the literary club room and noticed the door was already unlocked. I was surprised to find someone in the room wearing the frog suit. Judging from the body shape, it was a girl.

'Oh, Ms Asahina? Why are you in the frog suit?' I thought that was pretty funny. What motivated her to put that outfit on? When she did not respond, I got slightly worried and said, 'Look, uh, if you are not Ms Asahina, you probably shouldn't be here.' I was pretty sure it could not be Haruhi. Could it be Nagato? Not likely...

Still no response. I said more firmly, 'Come now, take that off. I will go outside so you can take it off. Okay?'

She said in a muffled voice, 'Actually I would be borrowing it for a while if you don't mind.'

That's not good. I said, 'Look, personally I don't really care about that costume. But if our leader finds out that the suit is missing, she may not think it is okay, and we could be in a lot of trouble because of that. You could be in all kinds of trouble you could never imagine. Please…' I paused as I just realized something and said, 'By the way, how did you get in here?' I asked.

She removed the frog head, and surprise, surprise...

It was Ryoko Asakura, my favorite psycho-girl. She had returned once again.

'Why... are your here?' I quickly walked backwards and reached for the door knob just in case.

'Hello Kyon, we meet again. Do you miss me?'

I said, 'Don't you have something better to do than showing up here cosplaying? Don't tell me you are here to try to kill me again.'

With a smile and a wink, she replied, 'Oh no. On the contrary, I am here to protect you and Ms Suzumiya.'

'Why would we need you when we have... Oh no, don't tell me… something happened to Nagato?''

'Bingo! Ms Nagato is relieved of her duty.'

'What? Why? Where is she now?'

'Oh, you know… she was called back. The Data Integration Thought Entity had been quite weary with Ms Nagato's performance for some time now. Ever since her _little_ incident around Christmas actually. She malfunctioned, changed the world, even wished the Data Integration Thought Entity out of existence. Then she attempted to communicate with the other alien entity and failed miserably. But the final straw was when she disobeyed her order and protected someone she's ordered not to. The Data Integration Thought Entity had lost confidence and trust in her.'

Asakura made it sound terrible, but none of them was really Nagato's fault.

Asakura continued, 'Anyways, I was given strict orders to protect you and Ms Suzumiya, and trust me, I have no intention to disobey my orders. Rest assured that I would keep my promise, so don't you worry about a thing okay? However, I am not supposed to return in full yet, so I needed a disguise. I was poking around in the school and found the frog suit and it looked so cute! So I thought it would probably be a better disguise than the knight's armor I materialized earlier. I do miss carrying the big sword though! Anyways, I'll see you around, okay? Actually, you won't see me around. I'd be so good at concealing my presence you won't even know I am there. Bye now.'

She put on the frog head, hopped and skipped out of the room. I did not try to stop her. We now had a killer frog on the loose. At least she's large, bright green, and easy to spot from a distance.

I sat in a chair, still processing the information. Our Nagato was gone? I pulled out my phone and called her. She did not pick up. Shortly after Koizumi and Ms Asahina joined me in the club room.

Koizumi saw my panicking face and asked, 'Why the worried look?'

I replied, 'Nagato… she might be gone.'

'Where did you hear that from?'

'From Ryoko Asakura… she's back. And she took the frog suit.'

They were both in disbelief. Asakura returned and took the stupid frog suit? It had to be a bad joke. I wished it were, but I witnessed it with my own eyes.

I thought for a moment then said, 'But Nagato could not be gone. Remember the night I time-jumped into the future? It is the upcoming anniversary day. That's like a week or so from today. She's there! You saw her too, right, Koizumi, Ms Asahina?''

Koïzumi forced a smiled and said, 'Actually that happens in the future for me, so I won't be there until that time and cannot tell you if she will be there.'

That's right... and Ms Asahina would not know either.

Unexpectedly, Ms Asahina said, 'Actually Kyon, Koizumi, I have something I have to tell you...'

Ms Asahina explained that the night before Nagato contacted her and asked to be brought to that future date so she could be there for the anniversary. When Ms Asahina asked why, Nagato said it was a special day for her, and she wanted to be there for Haruhi and everyone. Ms Asahina said she had no trouble getting permission for the request from her superiors, and she was even given instructions to inform Koizumi and I about it if I were to bring up the topic. We were instructed not to act unusual on the anniversary day. I suspected that the adult Ms Asahina granted this favor for Nagato, and she wanted us to know exactly what was to happen and how to act.

'Did you travel back in time with her together?' I asked.

Ms Asahina had trouble answering the question. 'You see, I don't know for sure, because… she vanished during our trip back.'

'What happened exactly?'

'All I know was we were about to time jump, and she began to disappear. I was worried at first, but she put her left hand on my shoulder, and I had a feeling that…'

'That?'

'Everything will be fine.'

Famous last words...

I was getting impatient and angry. What should I do? I remembered a promise I had once made to our alien friend.

'When I was hospitalized for allegedly fell off the stairs, Nagato visited me and told me the Data Integration Thought Entity was evaluating the punishment for her doing. I told Nagato to let the Data Integration Thought Entity know that if they ever tried to punish her or take her away, I swore I would convince Haruhi of the truth and she would use her power to find Nagato, we'd even wipe out the existence of the Data Integration Thought Entity just to have her back. You think perhaps they don't think I am not going to serious enough to go through with it? They had certainly gotten aggressive recently… then they dared to punish Nagato for the mess they created! If they thought I was bluffing… I guess they don't know me that well!' Yes, I made a promise to Nagato. I could not back down now. I saw both Koizumi and Ms Asahina's faces, and I could tell they were feeling uncomfortable with my decision. They might have to worry about the world but at that moment, Nagato was the world to me. I did not care if Koizumi tried to stop me this time. If he tried to stop me I would shove his smiling face into the table so hard so fast he would still be smiling after he went through the table.

Koizumi said, treading softly on the subject, 'Consider the Data Integration Thought Entity being so powerful, I thought they could have avoided your retaliation by secretly altering your memory, but they didn't.'

'Who knows. Maybe they are afraid of Haruhi's subconscious powers. Who isn't? More the reason we have to act quick…'

Out of the blue a book fell off the bookshelf and startled all of us. I walked over and picked it up. It was the book Nagato lent me a while back. That had to be a sign, right, Nagato?

I flipped through it quickly, and indeed there was a bookmark in it, which said, 'Same place, same time.' I giggled like a child as I felt that all might be fine again, as I had a hunch where and when it referred to…

Before I could say anything, Haruhi came through the door. She looked a bit confused.

'Mikuru, if you are here, then who's in the frog suit out there just now?'

Ms Asakura was outside listening all that time? Surely that was not something I could tell Haruhi. I had already prepared a lie for the occasion. 'Ms Tsuruya came by earlier asking if she could borrow it for a costume party.' I said.

That worked out just fine, as Haruhi smiled brightly and said something about 'See I knew the frog suit was a hit.' Shortly after, Haruhi turned the focus on me. She was not happy when she found out I had not yet told Koizumi and Ms Asahina about the convention. I said I was distracted because Nagato was missing.

'Oh? Do you know where she is? Have you tried calling her?'

'I don't know where she is. I did try calling her but there was no answer. Although, I have a good feeling I may be able to find her later today.' I decided to hold off telling Haruhi about her being a God and so on so forth, and Koizumi knew it. He looked relieved.

'Okay, keep me updated. Hopefully she's not sick again or something.' Haruhi then went on to inform Koizumi and Ms Asahina about the convention, that I had an excuse for not attending, and asked them to join her.

Koizumi said, 'I have families coming from far and I have to entertain them this week, I am afraid I will be a bit busy too. Sorry.' It's hard to believe Koizumi spent any time with his family. Then I got the chill when an image of Koizumi and a dozen of his relatives doing the same creepy smile at the same time came into my head.

Haruhi was getting really annoyed now. 'Mikuru, how about you? Got any excuses?'

Ms Asahina said, 'Oh I guess I could go with you.' She was taking one for the team - thank you!

'Okay, great! And you two better wrap up with what you have to do quick for I expect you to join us later this week! You are in the SOS brigade and you all need to get educated on these important subjects!'

Important? Funny… With that, we're dismissed and everyone headed back to class.

After school I went home but I did not recall what I did for my sister's project, I only remembered a few screams of disapproval with words like 'what are you doing?' and 'wake up!' and 'that's not how it's done!' and even one 'Shamisen could have done better!' I was just too eager to find Nagato.

At 7 pm I arrived at the park where Nagato waited for me and later gave me a speech about Haruhi and alien stuff. I sat down at the same bench and waited. I wondered if I could be mistaken. What if it was a message sent by Asakura, as she's luring me out to kill me? Now and then a few people walked by and looked at me funny, probably thinking that I had been stood up by a girl. 30 minutes went by and I began to lose hope. Nagato would never be late. I was feeling depressed. Did I see the last of Nagato, without saying goodbye? How many times did she save my life again? What had I ever done to show her my gratitude? I even hurt her recently saying some pretty dumb stuff. Man, I felt really bad. I knew I was loud and assertive when I declared in front of Koizumi and Ms Asahina about telling Haruhi the truth, but would I be able to convince her? As desperate as Haruhi was, always wanting to find the supernatural, she was practically blind as supernatural people and events were literally crawling under her nose frequently and she did not know. She was also practically deaf when it came to listening to any serious stuff I said.

I then felt a mild breeze, and as I looked up, there's a girl standing before me.

'Hello Kyon!' said the girl, with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

There stood a girl whose face was familiar but everything else quietly screamed otherwise. For starter, this girl was wearing a white long dress. The girl I knew would be wearing school uniform for almost all occasions like a manga character. The dress was fluttering in the mild breeze, as lively as the girl wearing it.

'Kyon? Are you okay? Hello?' The girl asked, hands behind her back, with her head tilting to the side to look at me, while I had my mouth opened with no words. Her eyes were soulful. She finished her sentence with a little 'glad-to-see-you' smile.

She looked like Nagato, but she sure was not acting like Nagato. She was cute in her ways before, but she's so much cuter like this...

And in case those who had a fetish with glasses were curious, she was wearing glasses.

She had never talked like this. I had never seen her smile. I did not recall if she ever tilted to her side looking at anyone ever. I bet if she had to walk under an opening slightly shorter than her she would just bend her knees and limbo under it rather than tilting her head. Okay, so she did act similarly in the other world that she created, but she's not the same as that version either. While I was glad to see her, I was having trouble accepting that she was indeed Nagato.

'Nagato?' That's the best I could do at the moment.

She lowered one of her eyebrows with a judging expression and said, 'Yes?' Another facial expression. That was twice as many facial expressions I saw on her in most days, and she said the word 'yes' by raising the pitch. I felt like a baby, receiving new stimulation one after another for the first time. Cute, and cuter…

She continued, 'You don't look so well.' She stood up straight, looked up, placing her left hand under her right elbow and her right index finger on her right cheek, biting her lower lip, and continued, 'I hope I don't have to carry you home or something…' Did she just bite her lips? Did she just crack a joke? She looked at me. I was going to lose it. She's on the level of Ms Asahina's cuteness, without even trying.

Thank goodness it was dark because my face had to be flushing bright red. I tried to shake it off. 'No, no, I am fine. Sorry. Uh... good to see you… sorry about blanking out. What happened to you today? You missed school and you did not respond to my call.'

'Oh, I had a bad headache earlier and stayed home. My phone's probably off.'

I pulled out the bookmark and asked, 'Did you write this?'

She looked a bit confused. Yes - Nagato was looking confused. Stimulation overload.

She said, 'I don't remember… where did you find it?'

'I thought you left me this in a book at the clubroom so I could meet you here at this hour.'

'Oh? Are you pulling my legs?' She gave me the judge-y, but with a bit of mischievous look that was one of Haruhi's trademark looks, and she did it just as well. 'You told me yesterday to meet you here.'

'I did?' That did not add up, but I probably should go along with the flow. 'Oh yes. Hahaha, haha, almost got you there!'

She laughed, as she placed her fingers over her mouth, partially hiding it. That laugh and that gesture was something out of this world. It was the first time I heard her laugh. It was angelic, it was so precious. I just had my mind blown. I thought a tear came out, with a dozen more loaded just under my corneas ready to burst out.

We went on with our conversation for another 20 minutes or so. During that time I asked her stuff only Nagato would know. What I concluded was that she knew details about the Nagato I knew, but whenever it had to do with aliens, time traveling, esper, Haruhi's God-like power, those memories were either altered or erased. For example, she remembered inviting me to her house and chatted, but did not recall anything about her monologue about her being an alien; she said we only talked about Haruhi and the literary club. She had no recollection of fighting Ryoko Asakura; she only remembered Asakura was in my class who used to live in the same apartment as she was but went off to Canada suddenly to study abroad. She did not remember fighting a giant cricket in another dimension; she only remembered we went to look for the computer president in his room, first time he's not there but then he was there the second time, lying on the floor passed out. She did not remember doing anything unusual that led us to victory in our baseball game; she said it was all thanks to 'lady luck'. She did not remember she hacked into the computer game and rewrote code on the fly so we could win the game; she only remembered catching the computer club cheating, and we won by default. She completely disregarded my 'joke' about Ms Asahina and I visited her home almost 4 years ago and slept in one of her rooms for 3 years. Okay, I did NOT ask her all those questions straight out, I beat around the bushes a lot but you got the picture.

She thought everyone in the SOS brigade was ordinary high schoolers.

She finally asked me why I asked her out, surely I wasn't just trying to reminisce. I came up with an excuse quickly… 'You know, the SOS brigade anniversary is coming up. Do you have any ideas what we should get for Haruhi?'

She thought for a while and said if I really needed her help, she'd come up with something for me, but she needed a couple days to think about it.

Feeling that I did not want to push the reality further until I spoke with Koizumi and Ms Asahina, we said goodbye and went separate ways. I called Koizumi and told him what happened. He was stumped just as I did. He did agree we should observe this version of Nagato for a little more before deciding what to do. I then called Ms Asahina and told her about Nagato so she would know how to react around her.

 _Tuesday_

In the morning I got to class, sat down, my mind continued to drift off thinking about Nagato and last night's encounter. There was no denying that it was nothing less than dreamy, from the time she showed up in her white dress, to the point I tossed and turned the entire night and pretty much accepted she was somehow the same Nagato and that she began to live a 'normal' life - the beauty of it was impossible to explain. The old Nagato was calm and confident, and so was this new one, but she was so natural and human-ly. Was this Nagato the perfect Nagato? I wondered if she still had her powers? I was so occupied with questioning her and convincing myself she was Nagato, I totally forgot about her powers. I had to test it out later.

Haruhi came into the class, sat behind me and started talking to me excitingly without me even acknowledging her - typical Haruhi. She said yesterday she met a real nice old man in his 70s who was one of the hosts at the convention, and she's convinced that he was the real deal - 'I just know it' was her own words. He was giving a brief talk to the group about historic events that had proofs of time travelers, aliens and etc. He even claimed to have dealt with some of them a long time ago, and he could even show us how to identify them when he saw them. Haruhi thought this man could help her find some of these people finally, and she's going back today for another open talk session. Sure, whatever. That could not be more interesting than what happened to Nagato. Speaking of which, I wondered how Haruhi would react to see the new Nagato. She then ordered me to inform everyone to meet at the club room during lunch time, which I dutifully did.

'Oh one last thing.'

Oh Lord Almighty, leave me alone already.

She continued, 'I noticed Ms Tsuruya was watching us from a distance at the convention yesterday.' She added.

'What's so wrong about that?'

'In the frog suit?'

'Oh… uh… let me talk to her for you. Okay?' That's not good. I better find Ms Tsuruya and get my lie - story - straight.

At break time I had a surprise visit at the men's room. It was Asakura in the frog suit.

'What are you doing in here?' I was startled.

'Pull your zipper up if you are not comfortable.'

'That's not it… this is the men's room… why are you in here?'

Asakura telepathically locked the men's room. My life was truly in her hands. 'To come and warn you about something,' she casually responded.

At least she did not pull my zipper up for me. I pulled my zipper up and said, 'Before that, could you explain what happened to Nagato? You said Nagato was gone yesterday. Why was she, uh, sort of, back, and was she really Nagato?'

Her face brightened up and said, 'You like the new Nagato? I made it happen.'

'You did?'

'Yes, I was eavesdropping yesterday when you said you were to tell Ms Suzumiya the whole truth. I relayed your statements to the Data Integration Thought Entity. They decided they did not want to make an enemy out of you and Ms Suzumiya, so they agreed to send a modified version of Nagato to hang out with you as a peace offering. As I said, Nagato was relieved of her duty, and I am your protector now. It is a fair compromise, right? Do you like her new personality?'

'So it was you who materialized a bookmark in the book and pushed the book off the shelf telepathically?'

'Yes. It was well-known that Nagato used similar method to communicate with you in the past. I kept the message vague just in case we needed more time getting her ready. Anyways, back to why I am here. I want to warn you about that old man Haruhi was seeing yesterday. Something was not right about him, but I am not sure why.'

'You know, Asakura, I still have a difficult time trusting you.'

'Get over it!'

'Easy for you to say!'

'Like I said, I'm only doing my job. If you are done, you may go.' I heard the door of the men's room unlocked.

'One other thing, Asakura, Haruhi spotted you yesterday. Could you perhaps be more careful and not get spotted?'

'Okay, not a problem.'

I decided to be courteous and thanked Asakura, left the men's room and went to another men's room to finish my business.

At lunch time I went to the club room and Nagato, Koizumi and Ms Asahina were already there. Nagato sat at her usual chair and was reading a book. She smiled at me as I walked in. Koizumi and Ms Asahina were at their best behavior trying not to act differently in front of the new Nagato. Haruhi came in shortly after with a big smile and asked who would go with her today for the second day meet at the convention. Thinking back, I guessed I should be more interested in that but at the time I was too busy thinking about what I should do about Nagato.

'Hey Yuki, you want to come with us?' Haruhi asked.

'Yeah, that sounds like fun.' I knew Nagato probably would not resist a convention at a bookstore. Her way of responding surprised Haruhi a little.

'Wow, Yuki, I like your enthusiasm! Mikuru, are you coming too? You would like to meet with Mr. Hasegawa again, right?'

'Oh, I'd love to. He was such a gentleman. He even gave me a calligraphy set yesterday. Unfortunately I have cleaning duties today. How about tomorrow, would that be okay?'

'Alright. How about you, brigade member number 2 and brigade member number 5?'

Koizumi said, 'I'm afraid I can't today.'

'What? Koizumi you have better clear your schedule or I'm going to start handling penalties to you!'

'Sorry ma'am. Understood.'

She looked at me.

I said, 'A couple more days please?'

Haruhi was not happy but was not overly displeased, it seemed the convention itself was enough to keep her mind busy; we would just be there taking up space and wasting precious oxygen for the other hundreds of nerds there anyways.

On the way home, Koizumi and I had a little chat about Nagato.

'Koizumi, remember the discussion we had not long ago? That the Data Integration Thought Entity was able to create human replicas and stuff? Do you think this current Nagato is the actual human that's been frozen for the past 4 years and now got thawed out with updated memory or something?'

'I don't think so. You said you met Ms Nagato 4 years ago and she looked the same. Why would the Nagato we knew be created to look like a high schooler if her real self was still a middle schooler? If she was frozen and was recently thawed, shouldn't she look like a middle schooler then?'

'What if the human Nagato was a high schooler 4 years ago?'

'Kyon, how about her family? Who's supporting her? If she has relatives why are they not contacting her?'

'In other words, despite the current Nagato's ability to show a wide spectrum of emotions, she's still…'

'A humanoid interface. Yes.'

" _Performing acts that appear emotional does not require understanding of emotions"_ \- Nagato said that not longer ago. So, it was very likely the current Nagato did not experience true emotions. However, how did human experience true emotions? Did we not take time to learn and comprehend? Just because Nagato did not understand emotions, it did not mean she would never learn to. All I truly wanted was to see Nagato experience true happiness.

I got home and worked on my sister's science project all the way till midnight, then went to bed. _Things were getting better, I thought to myself._


	3. Chapter 3

_Wednesday_

Haruhi came to school more excited than ever. She told me to inform all brigade members to meet during lunch break.

'Speaking of which, have you spoken with Ms Tsuruya? She's still watching us yesterday but this time she's poking her frog head out hanging upside down from a tree like 50 feet away. Is she joining a circus for spies or something?'

'Eek! Sorry, I forgot! I promise I'll talk to her today!'

She then sank in her chair and looked out of the window as if she were in deep thoughts.

'What's the matter?' I could not resist.

'Something's strange about Yuki. She is… different… but she is Yuki.'

Oh… that...

She continued, 'She used to be a cool cucumber. Now she's friendly, approachable… Don't get me wrong, I like the new her, but what changed her?'

I did not want to add fuel to her imagination and said, 'Probably it was a phase…'

She scoffed, 'Am I kidding? Me asking men for opinions about how a girl feels, especially you… no wait…' She began to tap her foot and put on her great detective face, then screamed, 'Aha! I get it! What have you done to Yuki, Kyon?' She looked angry and pointed a finger at me.

'What are you talking about -'

'Did you confess to her?'

'What? No! Why would you -'

'Because that could be a sign of...' (cue dramatic short pause) '... being in love!'

Good grief. I imagined Koizumi would be calling me any minute now asking what I had done this time as closed spaced were popping up all over the places or something.

I said, 'I swear I don't know and I did not confess to her or anything.'

She sat back with her arms crossed, staring at me with those judging eyes. 'We shall see.'

At lunch break we met up at the literary club room and Haruhi made us all sit down, then began, 'Well, you all really need to meet this man Mr. Hasegawa. Yesterday he was on the topic of time traveling. The details were insane and the science behind it was solid! He had slides after slides of diagrams and mathematical equations it was breathtaking!'

Only Haruhi would call diagrams and mathematical equations 'breathtaking'.

'He even said he met time travelers from the future before. They have a name for the time machine - what's it called, Yuki? Oh yeah, it's called the T.P.D.D.!' Ms Asahina made a loud gasping noise. She quickly covered her mouth, with her large eyes rolling from one brigade member to another then to the next..

'Mikuru, are you okay?'

Mikuru quickly recovered and said with a nervous giggle, 'Yes, sorry about that. P-please continue.'

'Okay. He described the time was like an animation, with a number of frames per second, which he called time planes, and people punched holes in the time plane to time travel. He then went on details with the quantum physics behind the theory. He's the real deal, guy, I just know it! What do you think?'

Koizumi was not wearing his usual smiling face. Ms Asahina was actually looking a bit pale. Only Nagato was the one smiling and perhaps even slightly excited. The explanation that stranger gave Haruhi was pretty much the same as what Ms Asahina told me a long, long time ago.

'I think he said T.P.D.D. stood for Time Plane Destructive Device.' Haruhi added.

Ms Asahina almost fainted and she dropped her head on the table.

Haruhi joked, 'See? Mikuru agrees with me. She is totally blown away by excitement!'

Totally blown away, yes, but not for Haruhi's reason for sure. I tried to downplay it and said, 'Haruhi, it was just a theory, perhaps even a hypothesis. I mean, has he shown you any proof? Wouldn't it be naive to accept it as truth so easily? By the way, didn't I once come up with something similar to you and you totally ignored me?'

She said, 'Oh Kyon, how can you compare yourself to a certified expert?'

Who certified that guy?

She continued, 'Besides, I was just giving you a quick summary. You have to see the presentation - they were for real, I'm telling you… So, who are coming with me today for his next talk? Yuki?'

'Sure, I will go again.'

This Nagato suspected nothing.

'Great! Mikuru?'

'I… I… am not sure.'

'What do you mean you are not sure? You said you were going to come yesterday.'

'I… want to consult with my… never mind that… I am sorry but I am not feeling too well. Please excuse me.' She got up, bowed politely, and walked out of the room. She was completely caught off guard.

Haruhi gave Koizumi and me a dirty look and said nothing. We both put our right hands behind our heads and bowed our heads. She got our answers.

Haruhi left the room soon after to arrange for someone in our class to swap cleaning duty with. With her out of the way, I told Koizumi about what Asakura told me the day before - which, based on today's big reveal, the person Hasegawa could be dangerous as she said.

Koizumi thought for a moment, then pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and handed it to me. He said, 'You probably have figured out that I have not actually been spending quality time with my relatives for the past couple days. The truth is I've been given this cryptic notes a few days ago. Hearing Ms Suzumiya talking about this Mr Hasegawa fellow makes me wonder if they are connected somehow. Forgive me for not bringing this up sooner, but I have honestly been thinking that it's strictly an esper business until now.'

On the paper was a list of 5 dates for the week we're in, starting Monday, then a time and a location. At the bottom it said, 'Be there - it would worth your while.'

I asked, 'What have you found out so far?'

Koizumi said, 'On Monday, at 4:30pm, a small closed space popped up about one mile from the location it listed on the paper. By the time I reached the closed space it had already vanished. On Tuesday, that's yesterday, I was at the mentioned location at 5:30pm as it said, but nothing happened.'

'What does that mean?'

'Unfortunately I currently don't have enough data points to say one thing or another. All I know is that since Ms Suzuimya is attending events at public places during these times, she is fairly safe where she is. I am going to play along with this mysterious notes for one more day, and I hope to get more clues about what's going on. Meanwhile, I'll send someone to tail Mr Hasegawa after the event and find out more about the man.'

'Who do you think he could be? Could he be someone we have met before?'

'All I can think of at the moment is Fujiwara. He has a grudge against us and he has time travel knowledge.'

'Me too. But did you remember what the adult Ms Asahina said before? She said Haruhi severed Fujiwara's timeline and it would not be possible for him to travel back.'

'Still, his knowledge about the T.P.D.D. sounded like it had to be from someone from the future, or at least someone who knows someone from the future.'

'May I ask what you two are talking about?' Nagato asked. That's right, we totally forgot she's in the room. How much did Nagato know about Haruhi, Koizumi and Ms Asahina's 'secrets'?

'Nagato, you were there yesterday. Was it the first time you heard of the T.P.D.D.?'

'Yes.'

'Did you know why Ms Asahina walked out just now?'

'No. Was I supposed to know?'

That confirmed it. She did not know about Ms Asahina being a time traveler. I had yet to confirm if Nagato still had her powers. I saw a book on the table. I said, 'Hey Nagato, catch.' I picked it up and playfully threw it at Nagato. She did not anticipate it and the spine of the book hit her squarely on the nose. I swore I did not throw it that hard…. I leaped out of my chair and took a closer look. Oh man, I should kill myself. What had I done? She looked hurt and she had tears in her eyes.

'I am SO sorry!' I was on my knees and bowing to her repeatedly.

Her right hand gently touched me on my left shoulder and said to me kindly, 'I'm fine. It does not hurt that bad. Why don't you make yourself useful and get me some napkins instead of kissing the floor…' I lifted my head and saw her face. She had an expression of forgiveness that would make anyone who committed an evil act like mine ready to jump out of the building to pay for the sin. The only reason I hadn't yet was because she asked for napkins. I quickly got up and found some napkins to help stop the bleeding. Koizumi suggested I should go get some ice and I ran out and looked for some ice and put inside a clean towel, brought it back and placed it over the bridge of Nagato's nose. There, I was ready to leap out of the building now… she held my hand and said, 'Thanks.' I felt like my heart had melted.

There's no way she had her powers anymore. Her powers were gone, and yet, her influence on me was many times more powerful than before. It's my turn to protect her now, I thought.

We all agreed not to mention the accident to Haruhi, for that would be the death penalty for me. For sure.

After school Nagato recovered quickly enough and she went to the convention with Haruhi again.

I felt really guilty for hitting Nagato. I went home and finished up my sister's science project as fast as humanly could. I then rushed out to buy some expensive sushi and pastries and went to Nagato's apartment, hoping to surprise her. I rang the doorbell. No answer. I tried again. Where could she be?... Then the door opened. It was Asakura.

'Hello Kyon, what brings you here?'

'This… this is Nagato's apartment, and I am here looking for her. How come you are here?'

'I have to be staying somewhere, you know? I still have no full time status so crashing at Ms Nagato's place makes the most sense don't you think? Ooh, I see you brought food. I also cooked. Guess we'll have a big dinner.'

The thought of a defenseless Nagato living together with a psychopath like Asakura worried me.

'Where is she? She should be back from the convention by now, right?'

'Speaking of the devil!'

I looked at the direction Asakura was looking, and there was Nagato, walking towards me.

'Kyon, what are you doing here?'

'Oh, hi Nagato. I brought food. This is my way of apologizing properly for what happened today.'

'Oh you don't have to do this… but that is very kind of you. Thank you.'

Asakura said, 'What happened today?'

Nagato said, 'Ms Asakura, it was nothing. Kyon, come on in. Let's eat, I'm starving!'

Nice cover up from Nagato. I said, 'Yes, let's eat!'

We set up the table and started eating. Luckily Asakura cooked, for I did not buy enough for three. It felt awkward having Asakura joining.

I decided to break the silence, and said, 'Hey Nagato, did the convention run late? You came home pretty late.'

Asakura let out a laugh then said, 'Nothing.' That's right… she was spying on Haruhi at the convention. The fact that she was at Nagato's apartment before Nagato implied Nagato went somewhere else after the convention.

Nagato responded, 'Oh… no, I just happened to have to run an errand, that's all…'

'I see. So how did the convention go today?'

'It went well I guess. The man, Mr Hasegawa was talking about aliens today. Ms Suzumiya was just as excited as yesterday.'

'Did you remember any details?'

'He said something about there were a couple alien entities out there, neither could communicate directly with humans, so they sent humanoid interfaces to Earth, mainly to observe.'

Asakura gave me an I-told-you-so look.

I looked at Nagato. She definitely did not think she had anything to do with aliens.

I said, 'Do you believe him?'

She said, 'I am not sure. It sounds too fascinating.'

'Do you think he can be dangerous?'

'I don't know.'

Asakura said, 'Yes my gut instinct tells me that he is dangerous. Be careful, both of you.'

'Like what?'

'Like, he offered Yuki 2 ice-cream cones yesterday. That's too much junk food.'

Nagato defended herself, 'No, I only had one.'

'Two. I saw it. You love eating I know, you don't have to lie...' Nagato turned red and appeared hurt by those words. Asakura said, 'Uh, never mind. My bad. Sorry about acting like a mom.'

'So Nagato… do you know Asakura well?'

'Yes, she lived in the same apartment before, until she had to move to Canada. She's here for a short stay so I let her stay at my place.'

'Have you asked her why she's here? It's not like she's going to school so what's she doing all day?'

Nagato was a little stumped by that question. I was not sure why I asked, perhaps I was fed up with Asakura butting in this whole time.

Asakura decided to speak for herself, 'Ms Nagato did not know because I didn't tell her, for it was pretty embarrassing actually. I knew a couple helpless kids here who needed babysitting while their babysitter took a sabbatical. Obnoxious troublemakers those two are. I could care less about those two, but it is a living!'

Interesting way to put it.

'You flew all the way back just to babysit?'

'To be honest, "Canada" is boring. I'll kill to come back to do just anything.'

After that I did not feel like talking anymore. I finished my share, I excused myself. Nagato walked me to the door.

'Kyon, thanks for bringing dinner. That was very nice.'

'You are welcome. Sorry again about hitting your nose. I guess I will see you at school tomorrow.'

'...Actually… Kyon, I want to speak with you. If you don't mind, can I meet you somewhere after tomorrow's convention for a drink?'

'Yes, certainly.'

'Okay, great. See you!' She spoke with a smile.

I walked home, wondering what she wanted to talk about. I was looking forward to it.

 _Thursday_

Haruhi again reminded me to gather everyone during lunch break for meeting.

'By the way,' as she said those words, I suddenly got jolted by the memory it was time for our daily frog sighting report. I was supposed to speak with Ms Tsuruya but I totally forgot, again. This was bad.

'I saw Ms Tsuruya yesterday again, poking her frog head from from underneath a parked car.'

'Uh, sorry…'

'So I spoke with her.' Brace for impact!

'She said she's on a secret mission and all would be explained later.'

Good old Asakura, she defused the bomb and tossed it down the road for me to deal with.

During lunch break, Koizumi and Ms Asahina arrived at the clubroom before me.

'Ms Asahina, are you alright from yesterday?' I asked.

'Yes Kyon, I'm fine.'

Koizumi asked the more important question, 'Ms Asahina, did you check with your superiors regarding the mysterious man?'

'I did. No one had heard of a Hasegawa.'

'So he couldn't have come from the future?'

'Not sure, since there is always a chance that he's a time traveler that comes from a time that's after my superiors' time plane.'

I supposed there's the possibility that the history was getting changed as we spoke.

'Koizumi, did your tail find out more about this guy?'

'Nothing out of ordinary it seems. He returned to his hotel after the event and he had not left yet. I'm going to ask someone from my organization to dig deeper.'

'Did you find another closed space yesterday?'

'Yes, I did. I was close enough this time to reach it before it disappeared. It is unusual.'

'What about it?'

'It's sealed.'

'What do you think that means?'

'I don't know, but I have some questions for Ms Nagato when there's a chance.'

'What can she do now that she has lost her powers?'

Nagato came in just moments before Haruhi burst into the club room. It's time for her daily report on the exciting convention. Once again she told us to sit tight, then she began to talk about aliens. She went on to describe things in a fair amount of accuracy. Mr Hasegawa told her the names of the alien entities. He explained they were here to study humans who possessed ability to evolve. The only thing he left out was the fact that they were here to observe you, Haruhi.

It was the last day of the convention, and Koizumi and I decided we needed to go and check out the mysterious man. Ms Asahina and Nagato also agreed to go and that made Haruhi super ecstatic. 'Now that's what the SOS brigade is all about!' she said approvingly.


	4. Chapter 4

We arrived at the bookstore and there were about 10 people gathered outside. There were 5 rows of 8 chairs in front of a small stage. On the stage was a table with some books which supposedly were the old man's masterpiece of nonsense. The conference was way smaller than what I originally thought it would be. Perhaps most people had enough of the tiresome crazy talk day after day, and they had crash-landed back to reality before the last day.

'Mr Hasegawa!' Haruhi excitedly yelling his name while waving.

The man appeared to be in his 70s. He did not resemble anyone we'd met before.

Mr Hasegawa shook hands with the girls one by one. 'Hello, Ms Suzumiya. Welcome to the last day. Ms Asahina, glad to see you again, I was worried I would not see you one more time. And, Ms Nagato, welcome back.'

'I want to introduce you to the rest of the SOS brigade members! This is Kyon.' I reached out to shake his hand but he simply nodded.

'And here's Itsuki Koizumi.' They shook hands. Was it my imagination he was avoiding me?

'It's nice to see fine young people carry on our mission! Ms Suzumiya, you have done well.'

I said, 'What's the mission?'

Haruhi said, 'Kyon, don't be rude!'

Mr Hasegawa said, 'It's alright. We ask questions, that's why we are here! Anyways, it's almost time to start. Please find yourself a seat. I'm going to talk about espers today.'

He looked at Koizumi.

Haruhi said, 'Yes! Let's go!'

While we're finding our seats, I asked Koizumi, 'Did he look at you when he said he was to talk about espers?'

Koizumi said, 'It's sort of obvious. He knew. By the way, let's sit on the second row. I want to be able to see both Mr Hasegawa and Ms Suzumiya.'

Haruhi sat front and center, with Nagato on her left and Ms Asahina on her right. Koizumi sat behind Haruhi and I sat behind Nagato, who turned to look at me and smiled. All my worries went away - for a short moment.

The old man spoke to the small crowd about the type of espers who did not have powers in the normal world but only in an alternate world called the closed space. Their powers were awakened by a God-like entity living among us and their jobs were to safeguard our world, although there were also espers who had different point of views. I looked at Haruhi and as expected, she was having a great time gobbling up everything this charismatic old man fed her with a 'why can't I be that entity?' expression on her face. I also tried to look for Asakura in her frog suit - but could not spot her. She probably found a better spot to hide this time.

At around 5 pm Koizumi got a phone call from his colleague from his organization. I recalled seeing the paper he showed me the other day with the list of time and date where closed space was to appear. Koizumi put away his phone and whispered to me saying his colleague confirmed a small closed space had appeared as predicted. He also said unfortunately at that point, knowing that the closed space appeared as predicted alone was insufficient to crack the mystery. He was obviously distraught from Mr Hasegawa's knowledge, as well as not able to connect Mr Hasegawa to the creation of the closed space. Haruhi was sitting right in front of us. If she didn't create the closed space, who could it be? Should I ask Sasaki if it's her?

Then I heard something I couldn't explain.

'Did you hear that?' I asked Koizumi.

'What?'

There were all kinds of noises. Mr Hasegawa on his microphone giving his presentation, plenty of background noises from passersby, vehicles, even birds. And then it was gone.

'It's gone... it sounded like... whispers right next to me...'

He moved even closer, and said, 'Like the way I whispered into your ears right now?'

'Not so close! I can feel your breath!'

'Okay, but what did it say?'

'I don't know. I don't understand it.'

Koizumi got another phone call from his colleague. 'The closed space has disappeared.' He said.

After the event Haruhi went up and thanked the old man and made us all bowed to him like he's a hero or something. The old man told Haruhi if she liked, he had some jaw-dropping evidence he could not show in public but he could have an appointment-only showing the next day for the SOS brigade. Haruhi was totally into it. She gave him her phone number so he could contact her later for more details. Everyone agreed to attend except for Nagato, who had cleaning duties . Haruhi tried to convince Nagato to swap with someone in her class, but Nagato said no. Perhaps she had enough of Mr Hasegawa's BS. It'd be better anyways, Nagato no longer had her powers and she would not be able to defend us in case the man turned out to be a very bad man.

After Haruhi and Ms Asahina left, Koizumi went up to Nagato and said, 'Ms Nagato. May I ask you something?'

'Yes?'

'You were at the event on Tuesday and Wednesday as well, right? Did you hear and see anything... strange?'

'What do you mean? We're at a supernatural conference... everything is kind of strange.' She smiled.

'No strange whispering?' I asked.

'Hmm... no.'

Koizumi looked at me and gave me a 'sorry-you-were-nuts' look, then said, 'Thank you. I'll see you both tomorrow at school. Goodbye.'

Nagato said, 'Kyon, shall we?' That's right, it's time for our 'date'.

We headed over to the park where Ms Asahina told me she was a time traveler for the first time. Not for any specific reason actually, just that it's nearby and it's too early for dinner. The sun was setting, and as I looked at Nagato face, I noticed it was slightly flushed…. I wasn't sure if it was just the sunlight playing tricks with the lighting.

'Uh, Nagato, are you doing fine? You looked a little… red.'

She's turning redder. Goodness, what was I saying? She replied awkwardly, 'Oh, sorry, I'm perfectly fine.' Although we did meet alone the other night, this was probably the first time she recalled walking with a boy alone in a romantic setting…

 _No Kyon, that was just a programmed reaction._

'So, Nagato, what would you like to talk about?'

'Well, a few things. But first, may I ask why you...' she hesitated, then continued, '...why you always call me by my last name?'

That's a good question. I called Haruhi by her first name. I called Ms Asahina with 'Ms' in front of her last name. I just called Nagato 'Nagato'. Perhaps it's because she had been this awesome, all-powerful being, who saved me numerous times in the past, so calling her Ms Nagato or Yuki would not show enough respect. But I could not tell her that.

'Should I call you Ms Nagato then?'

'No… Nagato is fine.'

'Would you prefer Yuki?'

She let out a reaction that clearly showed that 'Yuki' was her preference.

'I see. You prefer Yuki.'

'Please, call me whichever you feel most comfortable with okay? You are making things weird here.' She looked genuinely embarrassed.

I laughed and said, 'Sorry about that. It is nice to be of your acquaintance, Yuki.'

'Same here.'

'Yuki, where is your family? Aren't you lonely living by yourself?' I decided to dig deeper into her programmed memory of her past.

'Oh… they live in Canada. My family and Ms Asakura's family are very close. I do miss them but I am having a great time at North High.'

Clearly, she had fake memories about having a family, but _missing them_? Was that really a programmed response? Could she be evolving, even just a little bit? I hoped so.

She paused, then said, 'Although I had not been able to contact them this week. I was going to ask them about Ms Asakura's stay.'

It sounded like her background story of a family living far would become an issue eventually once the current Nagato figured out something was not right.

'Kyon, actually the reason I asked you out today is because I want to ask you about this week. This week's actually been pretty strange for me. Some of my classmates looked at me like they were surprised when I spoke to them. Haruhi's commenting about me suddenly acted like a totally different person. You also asked me a bunch of weird questions the other night. Was there a reason why you asked me those questions?'

How was I supposed to answer here? Nagato no longer had her powers and she's practically a normal girl now. I would not think it's right for me to tell her the truth, at least not yet. She deserved a chance to live a normal life for as long as we could keep it going...

She continued, 'I wondered why I joined the SOS brigade?'

That should be an easy one.

'Remember? You were in the literary club, and Haruhi barged in and took over the club room, and made you a member of the SOS brigade.'

'That's not what I meant.'

What was she saying?

She continued, 'I could tell Ms Asahina, Itsuki, and Ms Suzumiya were… unusual. Strangely, I did not feel that way until this week.'

I sensed a landmine approaching. She's definitely still very intelligent and perceptive. 'Why would you think that?' I asked cautiously.

'Mr Hasegawa. His talks about time travelers, aliens, espers… that could not be a coincidence, right?'

'To be honest, I think Mr Hasegawa is just some crazy old man who is just as crazy as Haruhi.'

'To tell you the truth, I have doubts about Mr Hasegawa authored the books he was showcasing. I glanced through some of his books in the bookstore, and nothing he wrote matched the subjects he delivered at the conference.'

'So he's a fake?'

'I don't think so... his face does match the pictures on the back of those books.'

She paused for a moment then continued, 'The thing is, in the past three days I could not shake the feeling that meeting him was destined. First I had this deep, unexplainable feeling that Ms Asahina had something to do with time traveling. I wasn't sure originally who would fit being the alien, but today, I again had very strong feelings that he's referring to Itsuki as the esper and Haruhi as the God-like entity. Which means…'

'Which means I'm the alien? Hahaha, that's so ridiculous!' I knew it was a landmine but I led us in anyways. Although, it could be a good thing; maybe I could get her head out of this with some misguidance and humor, rather than having her thinking it over and over until she went crazy.

I looked at her. She was quiet. She finally said, 'No, Kyon. I meant me.' She paused for a while then she continued. 'The film. Remember the casting?'

I would not want to lie, so I said, 'Yuki, that was probably why you made the connection. Haruhi was just making a movie, for entertainment purposes. You just happened to be in a witch costume for your class fortune-telling activity and crazy Haruhi cast you as the alien witch. Sounds ridiculous does it? In any case, the most important thing is that we are a group of good friends and we have been through things good and bad, and having lots of fun together.'

Nagato smiled and said, 'Yes, you are right. It has been fun.' Her smile was warm and sincere, with a little bit of sadness.

Sounded like a perfect time to change the subject. 'So, Yuki, what would you want to become when you finish school?'

Nagato thought for awhile, she said, 'I think I may become a writer.'

I said, 'Really? That totally makes sense since you are in the literary club! Have you written anything, aside from the story you wrote for the SOS brigade's only publication?'

'I don't write much but I have quite a few ideas. I can do it if I want to.'

That's the spirit. Finally we were heading in the right direction. 'I would love to read them.'

She blushed a little and said, 'I will try my best. How about you?'

'I actually have lots of ideas in my head! I probably can write a dozen light novels with those ideas!'

'Kyon, if for some reason I am unable to become a writer, would you… become one? That way, I can live my dreams through you.'

That's a pretty strange request, which I wanted to quickly move off from. 'We can both become writers - how about that?' I said.

'Sounds good to me!' She said with a brilliant and dreamy smile.

We walked for a while and stopped as we watched a street performer playing some very catchy anime music on his electric keyboard. When he started playing one of those songs that had a popular dance routine, a couple girls shrieked and began to perform the dance along with the music. We watched, we laughed. In the middle of the song one of the girls came over, took Nagato's hand and wanted her to dance along. Nagato in turn took my hand and I was pulled to the performing area. Standing to the right behind Nagato, she turned and told me to follow along. She danced like a professional along with the other girls and I was dancing like an idiot. Despite making a fool of myself, I was having a lot of fun watching Nagato having fun. _Is fun a programmable emotion? I hope she's experiencing fun..._

At dinner time I took her to a nice BBQ place and her eyes were so filled with joy happy tears almost rolled out of them. She really loosened up a lot after the silly little dance. She admitted she danced, sang, and could play the electric guitar. For a moment, I saw a Nagato that was as human as she could be. That happiness looked genuine and I would do anything to keep it this way. When danger came, we would find a way to protect her, and we would make it through. She was enjoying life as a normal high school girl. She had a dream to become a writer. She was charming, smart and fun. She could live the life she wanted.

I walked her back to her apartment after dinner. She bowed, and thanked me for listening and treated her to dinner. It was my pleasure, I said.

Just one more thing.

'So, you are sure you aren't coming to meet with Mr Hasegawa tomorrow? It would make Haruhi super happy if the whole brigade is there... I am just curious why you were so certain about not going.'

Nagato said, 'I don't know for sure, I just have a feeling I should be at school tomorrow.'

 _Feeling... that word again..._

'Okay, as you wish. Good night, Yuki.'

'Good night, Kyon.'

I arrived home to see my sister waiting for me. She gave me a big hug and thanked me for helping her getting an A for her project. I was such a pushover. Then she told me a package came the day before and she forgot to mention it to me sooner. It was from Nagato. I asked her where it was now and she gave me a blank look and said she misplaced it.

'When you find it give it to me okay? It could be important,' I said.

Just to be safe, I called Nagato and asked her.

'Hey Yuki, did you send me something?'

'Oh, it came already? That was quick.'

'What is it? Is it important? My sister sort of misplaced it...'

'It's not important at all. You asked me for an idea for an anniversary gift, so... anyways, it's kind of embarrassing, I don't know why I thought it was a good idea at the time, sorry...'

That was cute hearing her mumbling along like that.

'Hey, thanks. Good night again, Yuki.'

'Good night to you too.'

 _Friday_

Haruhi was getting grumpy and impatient as she had not yet received a confirmation from the old man. Perhaps he was the real deal and some Men in Black or aliens abducted him before he could reveal more secrets. The school was over and the call finally came. Haruhi hung up the phone and told me, 'Kyon, Mr Hasegawa wanted you to stay at the club room. He's going to conduct an experiment and he needed you here.'

'Did he give you any details?'

'He said something about conducting an experiment using telepathy. He wanted Koizumi, Mikuru and me at the coffee shop near the train station. You will need to be in the club room at exactly 4 pm. You get that?

After she assured me that Koizumi and Ms Asahina would be with her, I reluctantly agreed. I called Koizumi and he assured me that he would be with Haruhi at all time, and members of the organization would be around to back him up in case anything were to happen.

It was 3:58 pm when I arrived at the club room. I opened the door and someone was already there - it was Asakura, although I was no longer shocked or anything for it had happened far too often now. She's not wearing the frog suit.

'Asakura, what are you doing here?'

'To protect you, what else? I intercepted the phone call about the strange old man wanting you to be here. Call it my killer instinct, but watching him the last few days led me to believe that Ms Suzumiya was not the one in danger. I had to make a choice between protecting you and Ms Suzumiya, and I have decided that you need my help more than Ms Suzumiya.'

'That's ridiculous. Mr Hasegawa is miles away with Haruhi. He is the dangerous one right? You should have stayed with her -' There's a strange sound outside the door - a sound I had heard before. Someone's outside.

Asukua gave me her I-told-you-so look.

The school clock rang 4:00 pm. The wall appeared to 'flicker'. I had a very bad feeling about this...


	5. Chapter 5

The school clock rang 4:00 pm. I had a very bad feeling about this...

Askaura said, 'Kyon, this would be the 8th time.'

What did she just say?

The door swung open, and there he was, Mr Hasegawa.

'Hello. Should we cut the formalities and go right to the fight?' Mr Hasegawa asked.

'Stupid! You are still calling it a fight? There's hardly any fight! But sure, the sooner I kick your ass the more time I have to figure out how to get out of this!' Asakura said.

Mr Hasegawa shook his head with a confident smile and said, 'Being an alien interface you don't sound too smart. I must have said it before already. There's no way out of this unless I allow it.' He raised his left arm and pointed to a gadget on his left wrist with his right index finger and said, 'This device is programmed so only I can control it. Time will reset at exactly 4:10 pm back to 4 pm unless I stop it. You, my dear lady, will eventually accumulate enough error and malfunction, and I am looking forward to it!'

'Stop calling me "my dear lady"! And you talk too much. Let's do it.'

It did not take much time for Asakura to defeat Mr Hasegawa. She threw a couple lightning-like whips at him; he dodged the first but the second one hit him on the torso, sending him flying into the wall, and he lied there unconscious. For a 70-year-old man asking for a fight, he sure did not look prepared.

I went over and checked on him, who's out but still breathing.

'Asakura, is this the right way to treat the elderly?'

Asakura said impatiently, 'Shut up. He's still breathing? Good. Let me try torturing him this time.'

'Wait up, could you tell me what's going on?'

'What is the point of it? You won't remember any of this very shortly.'

She materialized her classic Rambo knife from thin air and was ready to carve Mr Hasegawa like a roast. I pleaded, 'Please, tell me. Maybe I am meant to do something?'

Asakura laughed coldly and said, 'No, you are not meant to do anything but die.'

I took a step back.

She said, 'Not by me, that guy. Well... technically speaking, yes, by me, but he made me do it.'

'So you are saying Mr Hasegawa is using you to kill me? Why? What did he have against me?'

'I don't know, but he said a few times he wanted you dead. But, in case you haven't noticed, I've kept my promise and you are still standing.'

'Wait… when did he say he wanted me dead? I didn't hear him say that.'

'He said it during the first, third, and seventh iteration of the time loop. Oh, wait - you _can't_ remember, can you? Because you cannot remember what happened in the previous time loops. Why am I repeating myself?'

A time loop... suddenly I remembered the conversation Asakura and Nagato had at Nagato's apartment -

 _'(Mr Hasegawa) offered Yuki 2 ice-cream cones yesterday. That's too much junk food.'_

 _'No, I only had one.'_

 _'Two. I saw it. You love eating I know, you don't have to lie..._ _Uh, never mind. My bad. Sorry about acting like a mom.'_

Mr Hasegawa was definitely conducting experiments at the conference. At first I thought he offered Nagato 2 ice-cream comes at the same time. In reality, he offered one ice-cream cone once and created a time loop making it seemed he offered it twice in Asakura's point-of-view.

Okay so I was in a 10-minute time loop, stuck with Mr Hasegawa and Asakura inside the literary club room.

Asakura said, 'Take a few steps back as this is going to get messy. I'll try to convince him to stop the time loop.'

Asakura stabbed Mr Hasegawa on his right shoulder with the knife as if he's stabbing a block of jelly. Mr Hasegawa regained consciousness and screamed in pain. My back suddenly felt a sharp pain as if my muscle memory was reliving the stabbing I experienced last Christmas from that same knife.

'Stop this time loop, or you will wish you were never born!' Asakura commanded loudly.

'Torture all you want…', he raised his shaky left arm up and looked at his gadget on the wrist, 'In 7 minutes, I won't remember any of this, and I can go another 10 minutes of whatever you have for me, then another 10, another 10...'

Asakura pulled the knife out and stabbed him on the left shoulder in one smooth swift motion. Another scream from Mr Hasegawa - and he passed out. It was too gruesome even if this was done to a guy who was trying to kill me…

I did not want to watch anymore and I turned away. I believed she stabbed him a couple more times and he stopped responding. She dropped Mr Hasegawa on the floor, took off the device off his left wrist and analyzed it for several minutes.

'Asakura, can we talk?'

'We've been through this before. Why do you keep insisting? How could you be of any use?'

'Well, excuse me, if you haven't heard, I've been saving the world several times no thanks to you and your brand of violence.'

'You think you haven't said that to me before?' Still, she stopped and stared at me for a second, then said, 'Fine. Let's try it again. Yes, we have gone through the time loop 7 times already. This is the first time I do not kill him right off. Not my fault really, he is not making it challenging.'

'How did he create the time loop?'

'I don't know, but you heard him, it had something to do with this device on his left wrist. I did try to tinker with it the last few times and I don't think it could actually loop time. I tried to communicate with the Data Integration Thought Entity, but it's not going through because we're in a completely sealed closed space. He also has a device on his right wrist that he claims it transcends time and helps him fight and defend more effectively against me, but so far he's been inferior. I knocked him out in a few seconds each time.'

I looked at the device on his right wrist. Its face glowed with sort-of a glow-in-the-dark-green color.

'Is he an alien?'

'No. Why?'

'Where does he get all this technology from?'

'The time jump signature is similar to what your kind uses. As for a device that transcends time, we don't need one since we transcend time.'

'So he is probably a human, from the future.'

'Yes, Captain Obvious, any more bright deductions?'

'Do you think he will become powerful enough to beat you?'

'Based on his progress? Not in a few hundred thousands time loop.'

'A few hundred thousands?'

'Oh, you don't have to worry about that from happening, in fact, he said it himself. He's counting on me to malfunction.'

'Malfunction?'

'You know when Ms Nagato went haywire and changed the world? I will also go haywire after enough time loops have occurred. But because I'm just a backup, I am going to fail much sooner. My guess is I'll begin to mishandle the error overload in about 15000 repeats, but rather than changing the world, which I lack the ability to do so, I'll probably just kill you to end the time loop.'

The accumulated negative feelings were something the alien terminals were incapable of handling. Even though Asakura smiled like a friendly girl, she could not understand emotions, as well as not understanding why I did not want to die.

Oh my God. We needed help. I asked, 'Can we go get help?'

'We are in a closed space about the size of this room. I am not sure where it comes from, but I have a feeling it's Ms Suzumiya's. No one can get in or out of it.'

Haruhi and Koizumi went to visit Mr Hasegawa - maybe he made Haruhi do it?

I said, 'Haruhi could be in trouble… Mr Hasegawa was to meet her… how could he be here at the same time?'

'Well, you seem to forget that the time traveling mechanism your kind uses can space jump too. However, what I don't get is why he doesn't just kill you himself instead of going through this painful process dragging me into it. Well, Kyon, care to enlighten me?'

'I don't know who he is. You said he talked a lot, so try getting the answers from him. Find out why he hates me. Find out how he knows about Haruhi and us. Ask him why's he going through so much trouble to kill me, befriending Haruhi and all. Ask how he accesses her power…'

'Fine, I will ask him.'

'Without the torture?'

'No guarantee.'

It's almost 4:10 pm.

I said, 'Asakura, please keep repeating how many iterations we're in to me… Although I don't think Deja Vu is happening to me yet, I am sure it will eventually, as I experienced it during the Summer vacation. I am sure I will remember more and more, and that should help me figure things out… just… work with me on this and don't go malfunctioning, okay?'

Asakura laughed, 'As much as I don't really care about your life, I will hate to lose to this man and disobey my orders. I'll do my best.'

'Thank you -'

The surrounding flickered.

The school clock rang 4:00 pm. I had a very bad feeling about this...

Askaura said, 'Kyon, this would be the 88th time.'

What did she just say?

The door swung open, and there he was, Mr Hasegawa.

Something began to sink in. This scenario happened before.

Asakura said to the old man, 'I have to say you have improved and lasted a bit longer. Like, 30 seconds!'

'My dear lady, I know this is driving you crazy and I am enjoying it! I'll keep going and going until you lose it.'

Oh boy, my brain felt like it was pushed up to light speed then grinded to a full stop with memories came flooding in. Unlike the endless Summer time loop, we're only repeating a 10-minute interval. The accumulated information from various repeated conversations was extremely overwhelming. _I remembered Mr Hasegawa said using subliminal messages - messages that targeted the subconscious mind - to make Haruhi create the closed space and the time loop, and he confirmed using the conference setting to conduct the experiments in broad daylight..._

Asakura went to work. After about half a minute, she leaped into the air and sent a blast of red beams towards Mr Hasegawa, who despite his age was able to jump out of it somehow, but the floor he's landed on suddenly had spikes sticking out and he landed on some of them, and got badly hurt.

 _I remembered Mr Hasegawa said the device that transmitted the subliminal messages was directional, and it shaped like a laser pointer. That was why I heard the strange whisper that one time but neither Nagato nor Koizumi could hear it; he directed the signal towards Haruhi, with me sitting to the left and back of her. Logically the message had no effect when I heard it because I had no power like Haruhi. He also said he did it on purpose to dare me, as he did not think I would be smart enough to figure anything out. He was right..._

'Enjoy the win, but you will lose the war...' Mr Hasegawa said.

 _I remembered Mr Hasegawa said he was worried that Koizumi would figure out what he was up to, so he purposefully sent Koizumi the mystery paper to keep him away from the conference for at least a few days. He was also secretly monitoring Koizumi's phone conversations with the members of his organization to confirm if the closed space experiments were successful or not._

Asakura said, 'Kyon, how much do I have to repeat this time?'

 _No, his name was not Hasegawa… he's Fujirawa! So it was him after all, even though he did not look like an aged version of him. That's right... he had his face changed to look like the actual Mr Hasegawa so he could use Mr Hasegawa's fame to host the conference. I foiled his attempt to change the future and he had landed in jail for 50 years for his crime. But why go through this complex scheme to try to kill me?_

'Why did he go through all this to try to kill me?' The question rolled out of my tongue.

'He said a lot but there were two questions he would not answer. One, how he knew so much about you and the gang. Two, that question you just asked.'

'He really hates me...'

'Yep. He wanted you dead or suffered eternally. I asked if ripping your limps off would be suffering enough, but he did not want it, quote, any other way, end quote.'

'That was not funny.'

'I don't know funny.'

An idea suddenly popped up. 'Maybe the reason why he's doing this is because he cannot kill me any other way. Have I said it before?'

Asakura said, 'That's actually something new coming out of your mouth. Would you like to elaborate?'

'Gosh... Okay then... last time Fujirawa's scheme was foiled by none other than Haruhi herself. Haruhi could sometimes sense danger subconsciously and protect us from danger, subconsciously… In order for that to not happen, Fujirawa gained her trust, then subdued her… probably under hypnosis...'

'Gain her trust, and use her power against you. Looks like she would not be of much help here. We have no way to reach her even though there is a 2-second gap.'

'Hmmm? A 2-second gap? What are you talking about?'

'I mentioned this to you about a dozen times by now. I figured out how he created the closed space and the time loop, and how the device on his left wrist worked. It started with me noticing earlier that in each time loop, the closed space lasted 598 seconds, not 600 seconds. I deduced the 2-second gap was crucial and I worked it all out. You know about the subliminal message emitter, or SME for short?'

I nodded.

She continued, 'Minutes before 4 pm, he used the SME to play an instruction for Ms Suzumiya to create the closed space at exactly 4 pm. Because Ms Suzumiya would be unconscious by that time, the only way for her to know exactly when to create the closed space was by hearing a unique sound, like the chiming of a clock. The second instruction was to be played on schedule around 4:09:55 pm to remove the closed space, which took 3 seconds to complete, that left 2 seconds until the third scheduled instruction was to be played at 4:10 pm - to return to the time when the unique sound was played. The function of the device on his left wrist is to broadcast a signal to turn off the SME, but the signal cannot reach the SME unless the closed space is removed.'

'Surprisingly I understand what you just said...'

'With me repeated this a dozen times? You better.'

'So 2 seconds are insufficient for us to get help from anyone else?'

'Nope.'

'And you cannot reprogram the device so you can stop the SME?'

'I cannot, the code is encrypted and I cannot transmit a signal I have not seen at least once.'

That's a dead end then.

'Is there any difference between the current closed space and the previous ones?'

'That is an interesting question. The closed space has been expanding since the time loop started. It started with just about the size of this room, but it had stretched to about 20 feet in all directions from the room.'

'Would the closed space ever get large enough we can reach Haruhi? She should be near the train station.'

'At this expansion rate, I would have malfunctioned well before that. Oh and I think I overestimated earlier. Based on the new data, I shall fail around 8800 loops instead of the previous estimation of 15000. The fights are actually getting longer. Unlike your experience with the endless Summer vacation, which you told me about dozens of times by now, this one is pretty much a non-stop stress-fest for me, and you can say it is tiring me out. I don't envy what Ms Nagato has gone through last Summer.'

Nagato - could she be the reason why Fujirawa picked this time and plan to attack? She should be in her classroom - Did it all come back to this, that she would be the one who saved us again?


	6. Chapter 6

Nagato, Nagato... the fact that she's in the school could not be an coincidence... right?

'Asakura, not only does Fujuwara needs Haruhi's help, he also has to take out Nagato, and the only way he could do this is to pick a time when Nagato no longer has her powers. Let's ask Nagato what she would have done if she had powers - maybe you do what she would have done to get us out of here? I know the current Nagato has very little knowledge of who she was, but she's still very intelligent. Perhaps she can help us find a way out of this.'

Asakura said, 'I don't have any better ideas so I guess we can give it a try. Is Nagato still at school? I cannot sense any living things in normal space that is not overlapped by the closed space.'

'She told us she had cleaning duties yesterday, so she should still be in her classroom.'

'Okay. By my calculation the closed space would expand to include half of her classroom in about 800 more time loops. When the closed space overlaps the normal space Ms Nagato's in, I should be able to sense her location, and I can alter her phase and bring her into the closed space.'

'Wait...Sounds like you can "phase' her into the close space... you cannot "phase" yourself or me out of it?'

'Ah, you think I've spent the past 87 loops fighting Fujiwara, having boring chitchats with you, then staring at your dorky face for the rest of the time? No. I've been evaluating what my powers allow me to do and not to do. I cannot get out nor get you out, but I can sense living things in normal space overlapped by the closed space, and I successfully pulled a bird into the closed space several times. I cannot send it back to normal space though. In other words, nothing goes out once in.'

'Okay then, so until then we'll have to relive this over and over again?'

'Tell me about it.'

'Okay, we have a plan.'

Shortly after, the school clock rang 4:00 pm. I had a very, very, very, very bad and unsettling feeling, with a strong hint of despair.

Askaura said, 'Kyon, this would be the 888th time.'

The door swung open, and there he was, Fujiwara.

The thought of reliving 10 minutes for 888 times was torturous, but aside from that rushed sensation of memories came flooding back into my head in a split second, and a serious sense of deja vu and despair, it was quite a cake walk compared to what Asakura had been through. I remembered many key facts… I was in a time loop with Asakura, Fujiwara and I. I remembered it took Asakura nearly 4 minutes to put Fujiwara out of commission - his self-defense device was slowly but surely becoming more effective. During the time loops, Asakura tried everything she could think of: bribery, threats and numerous torture methods I could not bare to watch. But the most vivid and horrifying experience was when she pretended to kill me - after we repeated discussing enough about it and we agreed to give that a try - she did stab me while avoiding the vital organs and blood was gushing out like a fountain. However, Fujiwara would not fall for that. He insisted I had to stop breathing - good old Asakura though, she kept her promise and did not end me.

Despite the battle dragging out longer, Asakura's protection remained impregnable. Perhaps it's because Fujiwara remained a fairly weak opponent. He was able to drag out longer mostly because he got better at anticipating Asakura's moves and dodging better. He's capable of creating energy shield and at times firing energy beams at us. He seemed to realize the longer he stayed alive, the sooner Asakura would malfunction, and that motivated him to fight harder. I wondered how much memory he retained.

Once Fujiwara was down, for the 888th time, Asakura said, 'Let's go. It's time.'

Time for - oh, that's right. 888. This would be the time we would go and talk to Nagato.

Time was precious. I ran as fast as I could, while Asakura went ahead in super-human speed. Even though I could not see anyone around, I suspected there were a few students here and there, minding their own business, not knowing the desperation I was feeling. By the time I reached Nagato's classroom, Asakura already performed her magic. Nagato was kneeling on the floor, still recovering from the effect of the phase altering. We only had 4 minutes to talk.

'Yuki, we need your help.' I said.

'Kyon, Ms Asakura. What is happening? Why are you both here? And where do the other students in the classroom go?'

I went straight to explaining everything as fast as I could, that she's actually an alien and she had powers before, that she recently lost the powers and became humanly. I then said the Mr Hasegawa was actually Fujiwara, a time traveler we dealt with not long ago, but coming back as an old man with a mission to kill me for spoiling his plan last time, and Haruhi was under his control, and we deduced that Nagato of the past knew how to counter him. While she was listening, she had an expression of someone who was just told by her parents that she's not their daughter... Despite that, our brave Nagato understood the urgency and she did not spend an extra second feeling sad for herself.

'I understand.' She sounded like her old self.

'Ms Asakura, do you have the ability to inject Fujiwara with nanomachines? If you program the nanomachines to make Fujiwraa think he has won...'

Asakura shook her head, 'No, I don't have that ability.'

'Are you able to access some level of precognition? It is kind of risky, but you will have to... kill Kyon, then see into the future on what Fujiwara does to stop the time loop, but stop him before actually doing it...'

'No, not that either.'

'Could you establish a connection with Ms Suzumiya's cell phone, and try to wake her up...'

'No, totally blocked except for 2 seconds, not enough to make a phone call.'

'Can you tap into Ms Suzumiya's power and break the time loop within that 2 seconds?'

'No.'

Nagato went silent.

I asked, 'Yuki, how do you know about all that? You shouldn't know any of that?'

'Fujiwara's talk on Wednesday at the convention. He talked about aliens. I told you. I felt like he's talking about me most of the time.'

It's obvious why Fujiwara would not want to attack me if the old Nagato's around. Nagato probably could use all of those suggestions to break us out if she still had her powers.

'Anything else you could think of, Yuki?'

Nagato shook her head. 'I am so sorry. But don't give up hope. There must be a way out.'

Asakura said, 'I am so inferior compared to you.'

'Don't give up, Ms Asakura. If you are the person I know you are, a solution will present itself.'

Asakura smiled. _Just what kind of person did you think Asakura was, Nagato?_

'Yuki, I have one other question for you. Why do you think Fujiwara knows so much details about the SOS brigade?'

Her face darkened. She said, 'Isn't that sort of obvious? It's my fault...'

'What?'

The school clock rang 4:00 pm. That annoying feeling was back again, and again...

Askaura said, 'Kyon, this would be the 1088th time.'

The door swung open, and there he was, Fujiwara.

After we had that chat with Nagato, I recalled we went back to her a few more times, but each time it was the same responses from her, so we had stopped involving Nagato.

Asakura was getting more irritated. She dispensed Fujiwara with increasing aggression. This time she threw Fujiwara out of the window. She then turned to me and said casually as if she didn't just murder someone, 'Well Kyon, what should we be talking about this time?'

I had nothing to say. Fujiwara's scheme was working, both Asakura and I were in despair. I said it about Asakura figuratively. Asakura walked over to the window. I did faintly recall this happened before. She looked out at the sky, contemplating things. She once said - maybe several times - that she 'enjoyed' her time being a student, despite it was somewhat 'boring'. I actually had a sense of respect for her. It would be boring for someone with immense power like her to have to babysit people like Haruhi and me, like what Nagato had been doing.

'Kyon, I am sorry, but looks like I could not save you.'

'Does this mean you have given up protecting me?' I had to be pretty bored to utter those words.

'I don't know. It would look bad on my record, but if it's imminent, maybe I wouldn't be punished too badly…' the aura around her just changed. She turned her head and looked at me with eyes like staring at a prey...

Oh boy, what just happened? Fujiwara might be the one trying to kill me, but Asakura, her killer's presence alone could give me a heart attack.

'Hey Asakura, let's go through this again, shall we? We must have options we have not yet tried…'

She spoke as she walked slowly towards me, with a knife slowly materialized in her hand, 'Did you see me throwing that old man out of the window? How many times do you think it has happened? 47! Do you know how many times I tore his limbs apart? 80! Guess how many times I tore him apart, threw his limbs out of the windows, then the rest of him?'

I was backed into a corner and she was a few feet away.

'The best I could do for you, Kyon, is that I'll try to make it as painless as possible. Okay, deal?'

'Why use a knife if you want to make it painless. Hey, wait, I don't mean that...'

She motioned she's about to slit my throat. I instinctively blocked my neck with my hands.

'Move your hands Kyon if you want to remain in one piece.'

'Hey, don't you forget about something? Fujiwara needs to be here to see you do this even if you are serious!'

'Let's call this a practice, shall we?'

That's it. I was a goner. She swung her knife at my throat. I closed my eyes. I thought to myself, ' _Goodbye Haruhi. It has been fun... please don't destroy the world on behalf of my demise. Goodbye Nagato, may you live on happily. Goodbye Ms Asahina, I'll miss your tea and cosplay. Goodbye Koizumi, I'll leave you this mess to clean up... lucky bastard, he'll have all the girls to himself, but does he actually like girls?...'_

Time might slow down just before one's about to die, but that was not the case here. I had time to say goodbye to everyone in my head not because I was about to die, but because the knife stopped a quarter inch from my throat.

I opened my eyes, and saw Asakura staring at the door, frozen.

'Asakura?'

No response.

'What was it?'

She just stared at the door, fascinated. She finally pulled the knife away, mumbled something quick and made some gestures with her hands, and out of nowhere, Nagato appeared and fell to the ground, panting.

'Nagato, why are you here?' I rushed over to her and was so glad to see her.

'What just happened to me... are you two okay?'

Asakura calmed down a bit. Judging from Asakura's blank look, she's as surprised as I was.

I said, 'We are okay for the moment… thanks for dropping by. Not sure how much you need me to explain, but you just teleported into an alternate dimension. So, why did you come here?'

Nagato said, 'For a moment I sensed… sensed…'

'What?'

'I sensed that you were in danger, and I rushed here.'

What could this mean? She could still sense that I was in danger?

We told her the rest of the details, with the fact that the situation appeared hopeless now. Like before, she absorbed everything quickly. It was 30 seconds before 4:10 pm.

Nagato thought for a while and said, 'I have an idea. Asakura, may I have a word with you?'

They went outside the club room and did not come back.

The school clock rang 4:00 pm. Something's wrong... very wrong...

Asakura said, 'Kyon, this would be the 1098th time.'

The door swung open, and there he was, Fujiwara.

Asakura fought with Fujiwara. As I was watching the fight, I had a very strong guilty feeling. It seemed during the last few time loops, I deduced a theory and Fujiwara pretty much confirmed it - although he never said in words that was true, his smirk of satisfaction burnt deep into my memory. This whole thing WAS MY FAULT… the reason why Fujiwara was so knowledgeable about us and was able to plan such an elaborate and precise attack was because I was the one who gave him all the information he ever needed... I became an author later in my life and wrote about my crazy stories about Haruhi and the SOS brigade.

There's something strange about the time line we're in. How could I get myself into this mess for something I had not done yet? If I swore off writing the stories right this moment, why wouldn't this all disappear? And if he killed me, he would alter the future as I would not be alive to write the stupid books that brought him here, creating a huge time paradox.

 _'I don't give a damn! I am old and I want my revenge!'_ I recalled him saying that once, perhaps many times.

I remembered Nagato blaming herself, as she was the one who asked me to become an author. Nagato, no, it's not your fault - even if I were to become an author, I should know what to write and what to leave out! For starter, I would never mention my real name...

They fought for nearly 8 minutes. Did Fujiwara get so much better?

Then Asakura stopped all of a sudden.

'Old man, we've been through this before. I have sworn to protect Kyon, but now I see that my defeat is imminent. However, I would rather you kill him instead of me. Here, I am letting you have him.' She backed away. she did not appear to be joking.

Wait, what? Did this happen before? It felt like it happened before... something bad... come on, brain... what was I supposed to do?

Fujiwara was suspicious, but he did not see how this would not work to his favor. He's got 2 minutes to end me. He walked towards me slowly, obviously tired from his dance with Asakura.

Asakura said, half-interested, 'Kyon, fight back, or you will die for sure.'

Fujiwara's strength had been his defense. His weapon - the same self-learning, self-defense device on his right wrist - was actually not very powerful. He fired a laser beam from it at me but his aim was off, and I was able to dodge. It would be a matter of time before I ran out of space to duck.

'Can we talk about this?'

'Goodbye, Kyon.' Fujiwara said.

'Keep fighting, Kyon,' Asakura said.

I threw a table then a chair at Fujiwara. He dodged them with his energy shield. I held a chair and started to swing it wildly at him, which amused him a bit. He shoved me to the ground with a force push.

'Goodbye, Kyon.'

Asakura mumbled something and made a gesture towards the door and Nagato appeared through the door. As Fujiwara was distracted, I instinctively jumped at him and tried to disarm him. He fired a couple shots towards the ceiling. The device had given him strength he should not possess at his age as he overpowered me and pulled his device down and towards me. Nagato rushed over and used her body to shield the weapon from me. Fujiwara fired. I was horrified. The shot pushed both Nagato and I back a few feet.

'No!' I screamed. Nagato was badly injured. While I was still in shock, Asakura dashed in and destroyed Fujiwara's self-defense device with a kick.

I got so angry I mustered up all my energy and punched Fujiwara in the face. Then I rushed back to Nagato and held her up. She was bleeding bad, and her eyes closed. She looked so helpless. My tears came pouring down. 'No, Yuki... Why?'

Apparently my best shot was not enough. Fujiwara got up.

I said, 'Stay back, you bastard. Let the time loop begins again. You are not hurting Yuki.'

He looked at his time device. There were only a few seconds before the time reset. He looked at Nagato and me.

'You bastard! Don't you dare!' I screamed. I probably looked horrible.

I turned to Nagato and asked, 'Yuki, can you hear me?'

She did not respond. She's too weak to respond. She opened her eyes barely, looked at me, and smiled. And then, she was gone.

3 seconds left.

Fujiwara pushed a button on his time device, said the word 'Mikuru' into it.

The closed space dissipated as usual at 4:09:58, but this time, 4:10 pm passed and went.

I yelled, 'No! What the hell?'

Asakura knocked him out cold shortly after.

'We did it,' she said.

'What the hell? I don't want this, Asakura!'

'Shut up, Kyon, that's what Ms Nagato wanted.'

There was a knock at the door. 'Hello there.' It was the adult Ms Asahina, 'I am here to take this man back to his time to answer for his crime.'

'Ms Asahina,' I said, 'Can you save Yuki, uh, Nagato?'

Ms Asahina said, 'I'm sorry I cannot. My order is to take Fujiwara back to his time, along with the devices he brought with him.'

'Please help?'

'I am sorry, but I am not allowed to.'

'Asakura, could you save Nagato?'

Asakura said, 'No. She's gone.'

Nagato's body was turning cold. This could not be happening. She saved me again. She was always ready to save me even if it cost her life. She's not some human interface - she was a true, close friend who went above and beyond.

Asakura said, 'Kyon, I'm going to reconstruct this room and surroundings. Stay still.'

Within seconds, the clubroom was good as new.

'Why couldn't you reconstruct Nagato like you did to the room?'

'Kyon,' Asakura said, 'She's dead!'

That word punched me in the stomach hard, I'd rather that be Fujiwara's weapon instead.

'Ms Asahina, you are from the future. How come you don't warn us ahead?'

'Kyon, uh, I'm not allowed to say too much, except this: The time line often has ways to self-correct. When the opportunity comes, trust your instinct.' Then she left.

I was too overwhelmed emotionally to comprehend what she just said, and I was not in the mood to talk, even though I had lots of questions.

I turned to Asakura and said, 'Ask… the Data Integration Thought Entity… please…'

'...They said no.'

The pain inside was excruciating.

'Kyon,' Asakura said, 'In case you forget, you have to go check on Ms Suzumiya and the others.'

That's right. I had to go find and check on Haruhi. Asakura was able to locate Haruhi's cell phone, and she asked me for my phone and she did something to it and said it would show me how to reach Haruhi. She said she would also take care of Nagato's body, and she had one more thing to do. I held Nagato's hands one last time, and ran towards the direction of the train station. I called Koizumi and Ms Asahina several times but neither picked up. I arrived at the place - which turned out to be the cafe we went all the time. The front door had a closed sign but the door was not locked. Mr Arakawa and Ms Mori were out cold at a table near the front door. The staff were out cold on the ground behind the counter. Everyone was still breathing. I found Ms Asahina, Koizumi and Haruhi unconscious at our usual table. I did not see any future tech lying around - it appeared the adult Ms Asahina already came by and took everything that should not be here. I slapped Koizumi on the face a few times, partly to find out how sedated he was and partly to punish him for failing to protect the ladies. It appeared a few nudges on the shoulder would be enough so that's how we woke Haruhi and Ms Asahina.

When Haruhi woke, she was confused. 'Hey Kyon, why are you here? Where's Mr Hasegawa?'

Someone in the frog suit walked in.

'Asakura?' I said.

The person removed the frog head and revealed it to be Ms Tsuruya. She said, 'Is everything okay in here?'

'Asakura?' Haruhi was dumbfounded.


	7. Chapter 7

Later that day, Koizumi, Ms Asahina and I returned to the coffee shop to talk.

Koizumi began by saying that Mr Arakawa, Ms Mori and the staffs at the shop were all okay. The staff were told that there was a gas leak of sort but everything was fine.

I began by saying Nagato's gone. Ms Asahina was in shock. Koizumi said he was in disbelief, but suggested that we shared the details from the start. I agreed.

Koizumi said, 'I contacted Mr Arakawa and Ms Mori as backup support as soon as I heard about the meeting. Mr Arakawa and Mr Mori wore light disguises, came to the coffee shop early and sat near the front. Ms Suzumiya, Ms Asahina and I came to the coffee shop around 3:45 pm, sat at our usual table and each ordered a drink. Since it was a public place, I figured I would spot anything unusual as soon as it happened, which turned out to be a big mistake. Mr Hasegawa showed up shortly and told us he's going to begin the experiment as soon as he had his setup ready. Shortly after everyone got knocked out at the same time. I did not know what happened after that, until you showed up and woke me by slapping my face. I suspect Mr Hasegawa locked the front door and put up the 'closed' sign to prevent people from entering, then carried out his next steps.'

I said, 'Actually the ability to knock people out in an instance was not new, Ms Asahina did it to me before. I have not see that technology applied to multiple people at the same time but I doubt it's not difficult.'

Ms Asahina said, 'I am sorry, that information is classified.'

I said, 'Don't be. It is never your fault to begin with.'

Koizumi said, 'You are implying Mr Hasegawa is from the future?'

I said, 'Mr Hasegawa is Fujiwara. He's gotten much older after serving a long jail sentence, and he had his face changed to one Mr Hasegawa, an author specialized in supernatural in our present time.'

I then told them that despite I could not remember living through 10 minutes over a thousand times, there were memories that were a lot stronger and were retained. I told them about the Subliminal Message Emitter (SME), and how the time loop was created and stopped, how Fujiwara planned to use Asakura to kill me, how Nagato found a way to stop the time loop by sacrificing herself, then a someone from the future arrived and took Fujiwara. I did not think our Ms Asahina should know it was her future self that showed up.

Ms Asahina said, 'Yes, there is a device called the SME in the future, which is the size of a pen. Messages could be programmed into it. Aim it at the intended recipient, push a button or set a timer to deliver the message subliminally. It gets banned for a period of time until a device to block the signal is invented -' It appeared Ms Asahina caught herself for saying too much and she stopped. I would imagine the SME could be a wonderful device to train lazy children to do their homework, eat their broccoli, brush their teeth, etc...

'Ms Asahina, do you know anything about a device that could improve the wearer's self defense capability?'

'No, that I have not heard of.' So it was not an invention from the future?

Koizumi said, 'There was no trace of anything Fujiwara brought with him.'

I said, 'I believe that someone from the future who took Fujiwara dropped by this place and cleaned up before I arrived.'

Ms Asahina said, 'Kyon, do you know who that person is?'

'I'm afraid it's classified.' Sorry to have to give a taste of her own medicine.

She drifted into thoughts.

'What is it?'

She said, 'While I was out, I felt a pull in my right hand. I half-opened my eyes and saw a photo in my hand... a picture of two babies probably... when I looked up, I thought I saw myself before I was out again...'

'Don't think too much about it, Ms Asahina, it's probably just a dream.' That's a pretty close call there, adult Ms Asahina...

'Okay.'

I asked no one in particular, 'How would Nagato know she would succeed if she sacrificed herself?'

Koizumi replied, 'She probably didn't know, but that's the best she could come up with. Fujiwara might not always accept that outcome, but to Ms Nagato's advantage, she could retry if she failed until he accepted it. The timing might be crucial. If Fujiwara killed Ms Nagato too soon and had too much time to think it through, versus only a few seconds, taking into consideration the way you reacted, he might have decided differently. I suppose you have Ms Asakura to thank for, because she's the only person int the time loop that can change the various factors to increase the chance of success.' Good old Koizumi, he could always come up with explanations that almost made sense.

'Tell me how he came back after his timeline was severed by Haruhi. Answer that and I'll buy you another coffee.'

'If you want me to speculate, here it goes… severing a timeline is probably not a sure thing. Timelines diverge and converge. What's severed might eventually reconnect to a non-severed timeline. Consider this man is so much older now, it could happen any time during all those years that had passed. It's even possible that Ms Suzumiya herself reconnects it.'

He was not finished. 'But I would not blame anyone from the future for not warning us about the event before it happened. I believe Fujiwara's return was a new event and no one knew ahead of time.'

Ms Asahina was about to cry.

'Ms Asahina, please, none of this is your fault.'

'I am sorry that I am so useless. There are things I don't understand myself. In the future I came from, Ms Nagato, she... sorry but I shouldn't.'

I placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her and Koizumi placed his on her other shoulder. She calmed down soon enough, just before we looked too weird in front of people around. _A love triangle, perhaps?_

I turned to Koizumi, 'How do you explain the convention? How could he create an entire event in such short notice?'

'You are assuming he came last week. He probably has been here for at least a couple of weeks.'

'During the time loop, once I figured out I was the one who became an author in the future, who gave him all the clues about the past - why couldn't I swear on my own grave that I would never write those books in the future and stopped the event from happening?'

Ms Asahina chimed in, 'Fujiwara came from a future timeline that you did become an author. If you decide not to write them now, his future timeline still exists; just as there are many possible futures, there are many possible pasts too...'

That's enough explanation about time for my brain for the day.

'What are we going to tell Haruhi about Nagato?' I asked.

'Let's tell her Nagato's out of town visiting relatives. You said before that the past Nagato traveled to the anniversary day to attend the night event, which is coming up in a few days. After that, we will say Nagato decides to leave for good.'

'That's convenient…' It did not do Nagato justice.

Koizumi said, 'Oh, thankfully Ms Asakura staged the "Ms Tsuruya in frog suit entrance" bit and that provided Ms Suzumiya a nice cover up story.'

Apparently Asakura went to Ms Tsuruya's mansion after I left school and dropped off the frog suit and a note for her. The note said I needed her to go to the coffee shop immediately, and I'd explain everything to Haruhi later. Knowing Ms Tsuruya, I knew she would be game for anything we asked of her to do and I didn't have to explain the 'why' to her.

After we woke Haruhi, we made up a story about Ms Tsuruya found out about the convention and recognized Mr Hasegawa in the promotion, who had some shady history with her family before, and Mr Hasegawa might recognize her. She knew Haruhi was interested in the supernatural stuff, so she told me about her concerns, and I suggested that she borrowed the frog suit and secretly watched over Haruhi from a distance, which she loved the undercoveridea and gladly agreed to it. Earlier that day she followed Haruhi and others to the coffee shop and when she noticed everyone became unconscious, she took down Mr Hasegawa with her martial art skills and she dragged him to a nearby police station, which quickly confirmed Mr Hasegawa as a criminal. She came back later to check on us, still in the frog suit. Haruhi was disappointed at how things turned out. She thought Mr Hasegawa was an honest and intelligent man. Intelligent, yes, but honest? Not in a million time loops. Haruhi still defended him by suggesting they were knocked out as a side effect from the telepathic portal he opened, and his criminal history was made up so they could take him away.

We wrapped up the conversation and left the coffee shop. I caught up with Koizumi for I had one more question for him, which I did not want to bring up when Ms Asahina's around.

'Koizumi, what do you think the adult Ms Asahina was saying when she told me "the timeline often corrects itself, and when the opportunity comes, I should trust my instinct?"'

'She said that?'

'Well?'

He looked serious and thought for a long time. 'I know you don't like it when I credit Ms Suzumiya's subconscious for things we cannot explain. The currently timeline we are in now feels highly unstable, as if, it's not the timeline we should be in. Maybe we've done something recently that took us down this timeline, and, perhaps it's Ms Suzumiya's wish that it be corrected. I should stop meddling with your mind though. It's apparent that the adult Ms Asahina trusted you in making the right decision when the time comes, and I trust you as well.'

'Yes, when running out of explanation, call it God's work.'

'Nothing to be upset about if the God's on your side, right?'

I got home and my sister told me there was another package for me. It was delivered by a man from a local store who volunteered to deliver it in person because at the time the girl went to his store and purchased it, he did not have it in stock. It was from Nagato. So… Nagato sent me 2 packages? I opened it up, and found a thermipad with a note that said, 'You asked me for a present suggestion. Here it is.' There's a small drawing of her head with an 'x' on the nose.' The note continued, 'To Haruhi Suzumiya. May this present bring you relief from taking care of the SOS brigade.' Silly Nagato... That horrible accident might actually be one of the sweetest moments in her brief time as a human. I had not decided if I would gift that to Haruhi... she would never understand its significance to me and the human Nagato.

My sister then handed me the package that was delivered 2 days prior but was misplaced and lost. I gave her a hard time when I found out she left it next to Shamisen's litter box. It was postmarked Monday. I opened it and was surprised to find the self-defense device Fujiwara was wearing on his right wrist, except it was glowing bright green. What's this? Fortunately, Nagato had a written note that came with it. It went like this:

'Dear Kyon, by the time you receive this, I will no longer be around. I am relieved of my duties. Please do not try to find me. Someone will take my place. However, It may be best that you are capable of defending yourself. I have created this device that can study and learn from the surroundings and your enemies to help you defend against the danger. The learning is accumulative.

I am sorry I do not come see you one last time. What you told me on the roof of the hospital last Christmas generated a massive amount of output in me that I could not process properly. Perhaps that was what humans called love - I read about it in some of the books. I would prefer to avoid experiencing it again for fear of a last-minute malfunctioning. Please forgive me.

Please do not look for me on the anniversary day.

Sincerely, Yuki Nagato.'

Sorry Nagato, but there's no way in hell I would miss the anniversary day.

 _Anniversary day_

It was the night of the anniversary. I told Koizumi and Ms Asahina earlier that I was not going. I instructed them when to arrive, gave them a present to bring along to rescue the past me who landed on Haruhi's bed - with her on it, which I swore I had no control over it. Koizumi gave me a dirty look.

I arrived and watched the action from a distance. The Nagato that came from over a week or so ago was there with the present time Koizumi and Ms Asahina, quiet and assuring. At one point she turned her head and looked towards my direction. She knew I was here.

The event was over, and I followed the group. Ms Asahina sent my past self back to his time plane. Nagato waved to my other self. Ms Asahina and Koizumi then each gave Nagato a hug, and they left.

Nagato walked towards me. She did not speak. Guess I had to speak first.

'Hello, Yuki.'

Her expression changed slightly from hearing me calling her Yuki instead of Nagato. She then said, ''You should not be here.'

'I know. But we all have our fair share of being at places we should not be. Ms Asahina, you can come out now.'

The Ms Asahina who brought this Nagato to the present time to attend the anniversary event was surprised to see me.

'Kyon, why are you here?'

Nagato interrupted, 'The two of you should not talk to each other, nor speak of this.'

I said, 'Ms Asahina, please give me and Yuki a few minutes. But yes, Yuki's right. Please do not tell my past self that I am here.'

Ms Asahina agreed. She walked past me until I could no longer hear her footsteps.

Nagato and I stood there for about 15 seconds. Her face looked never sadder and lonelier, and I almost cried.

'I have to go,' She finally said.

I just awkwardly stood there, silently. She walked past me, and I knew I had to try - anything. I turned around, reached out and pulled on the sleeve over her left elbow.

'Nagato, please don't go.'

Calm and quiet as always, she said, 'I have to. Do not feel bad for me. I made a choice, and I will stand by it.' She's referring to the time when she protected Ms Asahina despite she had orders not to protect the time traveler and the esper, which led to her being relieved.

 _Perhaps that's what Koizumi referred to regarding the wrong timeline?_

'We need you. We are near defenseless without you. Especially me…. God knows how many times you have saved my life.'

'You are welcome. When I am gone, someone will take my place. They will perform just as -'

'I don't want anyone else but you.'

After a short pause, she said, 'Thank you.'

She saw the self-defense device on my wrist. She pointed at it and said, 'That will protect you from the fiercest enemies for at least 20 to 30 years.'

'What happened after 30 years?'

'The battery died.'

It's a strange line of conversation at the time, perhaps I was trying to delay the inevitable.

'Could I put a new battery in?'

'Human-made battery would be inadequate for it to unleash its true potential.' That explained why Fujiwara's device - the same device but years into the future - was weak and it took a long time to build up to be effective. I still had no idea how he ended up with the device. Probably I mentioned something in one of those stupid books I haven't yet written again...

She turned away and started to walk away as her clothes between my fingers slipped away. She went to where Ms Asahina was waiting. I stood there, lowered my head and I was ready to break down in tears.

Nagato stopped walking and said, 'Kyon, promise me one thing.'

'Anything.'

'Do not ask Haruhi Suzumiya to come look for me.'

'I -'

'I am grateful to you, and I am grateful to everyone in the SOS brigade. However, Haruhi Suzumiya is happier not knowing about her powers right now.'

'I understand. If that is your wish.'

'Kyon.'

'Yes?'

She turned and looked at me. 'I have one favor to ask of you.'

'Yes?.'

Nagato said, 'Call me Yuki one last time.'

My heart hurt even more. Even though we kept thinking that the human interface was incapable of feelings, it could not be true. If a device on the wrist could learn about self-defense, why couldn't a human interface learn about feelings? How did humans learn feelings - didn't it _just_ happen? If she had a preference over how I called her, I was sure that she _felt_ something.

I mustered up all my strength try not to burst into tears and said, 'Yuki, thanks for everything.'

For one brief moment, I thought I saw her face puckered up.

'Kyon, thank you for being here.'

She turned away, and walked to Ms Asahina. I stood there and kept watching. Ms Asahina held Nagato's hands. She closed her eyes, and a soft light surrounded the both of them.

 _I recalled Ms Asahina talking about this event - the time when Nagato vanished. It's now or never. I had to do something._

'Nagato!'

She turned and looked at me.

I removed the self-defense device from my wrist, and dropped it on the ground. I stepped on it hard and it cracked.

'You will never be replaced,' I said.

I thought I saw Nagato flashed a smile.

The soft light got stronger and stronger until I could no longer see them, then the light faded away. Ms Asahina was gone.

Nagato remained.

'Nagato... Yuki!' I ran towards her. She turned towards me. I was bursting with joy, and I got overwhelmed by my emotion. I gave her a big hug. Thank you God, Buddha, or Data Integration Thought Entity….

'Please… let go,' she said.

'Oh right,' I released and said, 'I am sorry. I am just so happy you are staying. What happened?'

'I just received my orders to resume my original duties.' She looked at the destroyed device on the ground. 'You have corrected the timeline.'

'I did?'

'You did. The original timeline was altered when you and Koizumi took the path to engage in a fight with the Student Council President and I was compromised when I had to disobey the Data Integration Thought Entity to save Mikuru Asahina. That created an altered and unstable timeline where I returned as a human interface with normal human contributes, and you would be using the self-defense device to protect the SOS brigade in place of me. You would write and publish stories about Ms Suzumiya and the SOS brigade, including the events in the altered timeline. While in jail, Fujiwara read the books written under the name Mr Tanigawa and figured out it was you who wrote the books. He worked out the timing, began plotting the revenge and acquired the devices he needed.'

'How did he come back? I thought his timeline was severed?'

'Ms Suzumiya reattached it.'

'She did?'

'It was her desire to return me to my original form. She expanded the closed space during the time loop bit by bit so eventually you and Ms Asakura could reach me. She's the one that sent the human version of me a subliminal message to stay after school.'

'That's impossible... she knew about Asakura and Fujuwara?'

'Not consciously.'

'In other words, her subconsious mind was using Fujiwara to accomplish what she wanted?'

'To be precise, she's depending on everyone to play their roles.'

'Was she the one who gave the human you the ability to sense that I was in danger?'

'That was me.'

'Why couldn't your superiors give you a more humanly personality AND powers?'

'It is actually my choice from the start. We have poor ability to process human emotions so I choose not to deceive you with programmed reactions.'

'What is going to happen to Asakura?'

'She's relieved of her duties.'

'Yes! She's scary.'

'Ms Asakura put in some good words for me, which helped with the Data Integration Thought Entity's decision to reinstate me. They were going to offer her more powers and she refused.'

'Oh. I guess I should be more grateful towards her.'

'You should.'

I looked at Nagato and despite I was happy to see her back, it was bittersweet.

'Sorry Yuki, I hoped you could live a normal human life. I really do.'

'Perhaps someday.'

That's the spirit. I believe Haruhi would want Nagato to one day be happy and live as a human, just not yet. It's too important for the SOS brigade to have Nagato stay this way for now.

'Welcome back.'

'It is good to be back.'

'...By the way, you have kept the memories of your other self, I presume, by syncing?'

She looked away. She said, 'Kyon, do you prefer that version of me, or the me now?'

'I prefer the one you want to be the most right now.'

Nagato nodded, and said, 'And you shall call me the name you prefer.'

'Okay, Nagato.'

 _The end_


End file.
